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Gusev is a
crater Crater may refer to: Landforms * Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet * Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surf ...
on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
and is located at and is in the
Aeolis quadrangle The Aeolis quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Aeolis quadrangle is also referred to as MC-23 (Mars Chart-23). The Aeolis quadrangle c ...
. The crater is about 166 kilometers in diameter and formed approximately three to four billion years ago. It was named after
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
n astronomer
Matvey Gusev Matvey Matveyevich Gusev (russian: Матве́й Матве́евич Гу́сев) ( in Vyatka, Russia– in Berlin, Germany) was a Russian astronomer who worked at Pulkovo Observatory near St. Petersburg from 1850 to 1852 ...
(1826–1866) in 1976. Prior to the exploration of the crater by the
Spirit Rover Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
, the crater was postulated to be an ancient lakebed with Ma'adim Vallis draining into it, of
volcaniclastic Volcaniclastics are geologic materials composed of broken fragments ( clasts) of volcanic rock. These encompass all clastic volcanic materials, regardless of what process fragmented the rock, how it was subsequently transported, what environment it ...
origin, or a combination of both. These interpretations were based on ''Viking'' orbiter imagery, MOC imagery,
THEMIS In Greek mythology and religion, Themis (; grc, Θέμις, Themis, justice, law, custom) is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, fai ...
thermal mapping, and MOLA elevation mapping. However, Spirit did not find any
lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
deposits, instead Spirit found alkaline
volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic ...
s, including
olivine basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...
,
comminuted Comminuted may refer to: *Comminution, the process in which solid materials are reduced in size, by crushing, grinding and other processes *Bone fracture A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there ...
basaltic Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron ( mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than ...
debris,
lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...
s, and pyroclastic rocks, but no eruption centers. More recently, satellite images showed the trails of
dust devil A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind. Its size ranges from small (half a metre wide and a few metres tall) to large (more than 10 m wide and more than 1 km tall). The primary vertical motion is ...
s on Gusev's floor. The ''Spirit'' rover later photographed dust devils from the ground, and likely owes much of its longevity to dust devils cleaning its solar panels. On January 3, 2004, Gusev was the landing site of the first of
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
's two
Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...
s, named ''Spirit''. It was hoped that the numerous smaller and more recent craters in this region would have exposed sedimentary material from early eras, although at first the region proved disappointing in its lack of available
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...
for study on the flat lava plains of the crater. It eventually arrived at the Columbia Hills, however, and rocks examined in that region showed evidence of small amounts of briny (salty) water interacting with them in ancient times, although not nearly as much as at
Meridiani Planum The Meridiani Planum (alternately Meridiani plain, Meridiani plains, Terra Meridiani, or Terra Meridiani plains) is either a large plain straddling the equator of Mars and covered with a vast number of spherules containing a lot of iron oxide or ...
, the landing area for ''Spirit''s twin, ''Opportunity''. In 2009, ''Spirit'' became stuck in the soil of the region, and in 2010 went offline after a harsh Martian winter. Gusev was also considered a potential landing site for the
Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover '' Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from ...
''Perseverance'' rover.


''Spirit'' Rover's rocks and minerals discoveries on Mars

The rocks on the plains of Gusev are a type of
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
. They contain the
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...
s
olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers qui ...
,
pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe I ...
,
plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more p ...
, and magnetite, and they look like volcanic basalt as they are fine-grained with irregular holes (geologists would say they have vesicles and vugs). Much of the soil on the plains came from the breakdown of the local rocks. Fairly high levels of
nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow t ...
were found in some soils; probably from
meteorites A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object ...
. Analysis shows that the rocks have been slightly altered by tiny amounts of water. Outside coatings and cracks inside the rocks suggest water deposited minerals, maybe
bromine Bromine is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is the third-lightest element in group 17 of the periodic table ( halogens) and is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a simi ...
compounds. All the rocks contain a fine coating of dust and one or more harder rinds of material. One type can be brushed off, while another needed to be ground off by the
Rock Abrasion Tool The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) is a grinding and brushing installation on NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, ''Spirit'' (MER-A) and '' Opportunity'' (MER-B), which landed on Mars in January 2004. It was designed, developed and continues to be ...
(RAT). There are a variety of rocks in the
Columbia Hills (Mars) The Columbia Hills are a range of low hills inside Gusev crater on Mars. They were observed by the Mars Exploration Rover '' Spirit'' when it landed within the crater in 2004. They were promptly given an unofficial name by NASA since they were th ...
, some of which have been altered by water, but not by very much water. The dust in Gusev Crater is the same as dust all around the planet. All the dust was found to be magnetic. Moreover, Spirit found the
magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
was caused by the mineral
magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With ...
, especially magnetite that contained the element
titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion i ...
. One magnet was able to completely divert all dust hence all Martian dust is thought to be magnetic. The spectra of the dust was similar to spectra of bright, low thermal inertia regions like
Tharsis Tharsis () is a vast volcanic plateau centered near the equator in the western hemisphere of Mars. The region is home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, including the three enormous shield volcanoes Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and As ...
and Arabia that have been detected by orbiting satellites. A thin layer of dust, maybe less than one millimeter thick covers all surfaces. Something in it contains a small amount of chemically bound water.


Plains

Observations of rocks on the plains show they contain the minerals pyroxene, olivine, plagioclase, and magnetite. These rocks can be classified in different ways. The amounts and types of minerals make the rocks primitive basalts—also called picritic basalts. The rocks are similar to ancient terrestrial rocks called basaltic
komatiites Komatiite () is a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock defined as having crystallised from a lava of at least 18 wt% MgO. Komatiites have low silicon, potassium and aluminium, and high to extremely high magnesium content. Komatiite wa ...
. Rocks of the plains also resemble the basaltic
shergottite A Martian meteorite is a rock that formed on Mars, was ejected from the planet by an impact event, and traversed interplanetary space before landing on Earth as a meteorite. , 277 meteorites had been classified as Martian, less than half a percen ...
s, meteorites which came from Mars. One classification system compares the amount of alkali elements to the amount of silica on a graph; in this system, Gusev plains rocks lie near the junction of basalt, picrobasalt, and tephrite. The Irvine-Barager classification calls them basalts. Plain's rocks have been very slightly altered, probably by thin films of water because they are softer and contain veins of light colored material that may be bromine compounds, as well as coatings or rinds. It is thought that small amounts of water may have gotten into cracks inducing mineralization processes. Coatings on the rocks may have occurred when rocks were buried and interacted with thin films of water and dust. One sign that they were altered was that it was easier to grind these rocks compared to the same types of rocks found on Earth. Image:Spirit's First Color Photograph Mars.jpg, First color picture from Gusev crater. Rocks were found to be basalt. Everything was covered with a fine dust that ''Spirit'' determined was magnetic because of the mineral magnetite. Image:Rockgusev.jpg, Cross-sectional drawing of a typical rock from the plains of Gusev crater. Most rocks contain a coating of dust and one or more harder coatings. Veins of water-deposited veins are visible, along with crystals of olivine. Veins may contain bromine salts. File:Adirondack rock Gusev crater Mars.jpg, An approximate true-color view of the rock nicknamed Adirondack, taken by ''Spirit''s pancam File:Rat post grind.jpg, Digital camera image (from ''Spirit''s
Pancam Each Pancam is one of two electronic stereo cameras on Mars Exploration Rovers ''Spirit'' and ''Opportunity''. It has a filter wheel assembly that enables it to view different wavelengths of light and the pair of Pancams are mounted beside two ...
) of Adirondack after a RAT grind (''Spirit''s rock grinding tool)


Columbia Hills

Scientists found a variety of rock types in the Columbia Hills, and they placed them into six different categories. The six are: Clovis, Wishbone, Peace, Watchtower, Backstay, and Independence. They are named after a prominent rock in each group. Their chemical compositions, as measured by APXS, are significantly different from each other. Most importantly, all of the rocks in Columbia Hills show various degrees of alteration due to aqueous fluids. They are enriched in the elements phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and bromine—all of which can be carried around in water solutions. The Columbia Hills’ rocks contain basaltic glass, along with varying amounts of olivine and
sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ...
s. The olivine abundance varies inversely with the amount of sulfates. This is exactly what is expected because water destroys olivine but helps to produce sulfates. The Clovis group is especially interesting because the Mössbauer spectrometer(MB) detected
goethite Goethite (, ) is a mineral of the diaspore group, consisting of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, specifically the "α" polymorph. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments such as sediment. Goethite has been well known since ancient t ...
in it. Goethite forms only in the presence of water, so its discovery is the first direct evidence of past water in the Columbia Hills's rocks. In addition, the MB spectra of rocks and outcrops displayed a strong decline in olivine presence, although the rocks probably once contained much olivine. Olivine is a marker for the lack of water because it easily decomposes in the presence of water. Sulfate was found, and it needs water to form. Wishstone contained a great deal of plagioclase, some olivine, and anhydrate (a sulfate). Peace rocks showed
sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...
and strong evidence for bound water, so hydrated sulfates are suspected. Watchtower class rocks lack olivine consequently they may have been altered by water. The Independence class showed some signs of clay (perhaps montmorillonite a member of the smectite group). Clays require fairly long term exposure to water to form. One type of soil, called Paso Robles, from the Columbia Hills, may be an evaporate deposit because it contains large amounts of sulfur,
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ea ...
,
calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar ...
, and
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
. Also, MB found that much of the iron in Paso Robles soil was of the oxidized, Fe+++ form, which would happen if water had been present. Towards the middle of the six-year mission (a mission that was supposed to last only 90 days), large amounts of pure
silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
were found in the soil. The silica could have come from the interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water or from water in a hot spring environment. After ''Spirit'' stopped working scientists studied old data from the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer, or Mini-TES and confirmed the presence of large amounts of
carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate ...
-rich rocks, which means that regions of the planet may have once harbored water. The carbonates were discovered in an outcrop of rocks called "Comanche." In summary, ''Spirit'' found evidence of slight weathering on the plains of Gusev, but no evidence that a lake was there. However, in the Columbia Hills there was clear evidence for a moderate amount of aqueous weathering. The evidence included sulfates and the minerals goethite and carbonates which only form in the presence of water. It is believed that Gusev crater may have held a lake long ago, but it has since been covered by igneous materials. All the dust contains a magnetic component which was identified as magnetite with some titanium. Furthermore, the thin coating of dust that covers everything on Mars is the same in all parts of Mars.


Features within Gusev


Hills

* The Columbia Hills is a range of low hills 3 km from ''Spirit''s original landing site; ''Spirit'' explored within them **
Husband Hill Husband Hill is one of the Columbia Hills in Gusev crater, Mars, which are close to the landing site of NASA's ''Spirit'' rover. It was named in honor of Rick Husband, the commander of the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' when it disintegrated upo ...
is one of these hills **
McCool Hill McCool Hill is the tallest of the Columbia Hills in Gusev crater, Mars. It was named in honor of William C. McCool, an astronaut of the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' during its final mission where it disintegrated during atmospheric reentry (se ...
is the tallest of the Columbia Hills ** Larry's Lookout is within Columbia Hills * The
Apollo 1 Hills The Apollo 1 Hills are three hills on Mars named to memorialize the crew of Apollo 1. The three hills were some of the first landmarks sighted following the January 7, 2004, landing of the ''Spirit'' rover on Mars. Background NASA astronauts ...
are three widely spaced hills 7–14 km away from ''Spirit''s landing site


Craters

* Bonneville is a 200-metre crater visited by ''Spirit'' * Crivitz is a smaller crater located within Gusev *
Thira Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...
is a crater located within Gusev, and could be seen from the summit of Husband Hill


Other

* Sleepy Hollow is a shallow depression near ''Spirit''s landing site * Adirondack is the name of the first rock visited by ''Spirit'' *
Home Plate A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...
is a layered geological feature recently studied by ''Spirit''


Landing site

Gusev crater was one of three candidates for a landing site for the
Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover '' Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from ...
rover as of 2017. Columbia Hills was previously explored by ''Spirit'' rover, which after several years of activity stopped communicating in 2010. Other landing site candidates for the Mars 2020 rover, by 2017, were Northeast Syrtis ( Syrtis Major)and
Jezero crater Jezero is a crater on Mars in the Syrtis Major quadrangle, about in diameter. Thought to have once been flooded with water, the crater contains a fan- delta deposit rich in clays. The lake in the crater was present when valley networks were for ...
.


In popular culture

* Gusev Crater is the landing site of the Mars Consortium mission in
Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reas ...
's 1999 novel '' The Martian Race''. * The setting of the 2009 ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'' episode "
The Waters of Mars "The Waters of Mars" is the third episode of the 2008–2010 specials of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009. The story is set on Mars in the year 2059 where t ...
" is Bowie Base One, in Gusev Crater. * Gusev Crater is featured in the science fiction TV series '' Defying Gravity'' as the location of the Alpha extraterrestrial signal central to the plot. It was also the landing location of the failed Mars mission that took place in 2042.


Interactive Mars map


See also

*
Aeolis quadrangle The Aeolis quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Aeolis quadrangle is also referred to as MC-23 (Mars Chart-23). The Aeolis quadrangle c ...
*
Composition of Mars The composition of Mars covers the branch of the geology of Mars that describes the make-up of the planet Mars. Elemental composition Mars is differentiated, which—for a terrestrial planet—implies that it has a central core made up of me ...
*
Geography of Mars Areography, also known as the geography of Mars, is a subfield of planetary science that entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. Areography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the ...
*
Geology of Mars The geology of Mars is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mars. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial g ...
*
Impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...
*
Impact event An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or ...
*
List of craters on Mars __NOTOC__ This is a list of craters on Mars. Impact craters on Mars larger than exist by the hundreds of thousands, but only about one thousand of them have names. Names are assigned by the International Astronomical Union after petitioning by ...
*
Ore resources on Mars Mars may contain ores that would be very useful to potential colonists. The abundance of volcanic features together with widespread cratering are strong evidence for a variety of ores. While nothing may be found on Mars that would justify the hi ...
*
Planetary nomenclature Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. Since the invention of the tel ...
* Scientific information from the Mars Exploration Rover mission * ''Spirit'' rover for ''Spirit''s journey within Gusev


References


External links


Google Mars zoomable map
- centered on Gusev
Colored THEMIS VIS picture, inside the crater
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gusev Crater Impact craters on Mars Mars Exploration Rover mission Mars 2020 Aeolis quadrangle